Chapter Nine from my book
Finding Justice in Perugia
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Amanda Knox |
The internet has certainly played a major role in the coverage of this case, leading me to write an entire chapter on the internet's influence in "Injustice in Perugia." During that discussion, I detailed a group of people that have actively campaigned against Amanda Knox online. Of course their anger has also been pointed at Raffaele but Amanda has always been the main target.
My initial approach was to limit the discussion to the general activities of the group, as I was reluctant to give those who were so adamantly against Amanda and Raffaele any more attention than necessary. As time went on it became crystal clear that these people were not simply campaigning to keep Amanda and Raffaele in prison, they were also actively trying to harm those who showed support for the two.
After seeing these hateful actions firsthand, my position changed drastically on how the pro-guilt group needed to be dealt with. I came to realize that it was very important for people to know what fueled the hate campaign against Amanda Knox.
The group I am referring to assembles on a website called Perugia Murder File (PMF). They also run a so called informational website called True Justice for Meredith Kercher(TJMK). Seattle resident Peggy Ganong operates PMF. TJMK is run by New Jersey resident Peter Quennell.
Those who support TJMK/PMF are often referred to as pro-guilt, Anti-Knox, or guilters. Many names have been given to those who support Amanda and Raffaele as well. The most recent one would be FOAker, using the Friends of Amanda acronym.
The guilters have always claimed that their mission is to preserve the memory of Meredith Kercher but that is far from the truth. If I was going to set up a website dedicated to a murder victim I would most likely look for ways to keep her memory alive such as setting up a college fund in her name or starting a charity to help victims of violence. To this day, the guilters have done absolutely nothing of the sort. There is a section on their website titled "Projects for Meredith" that is empty. Not one member in their group could think of anything they could do to honor the person they claimed to gather for. Why? The answer to that question is simple; they do not really care about Meredith Kercher. Sure many casual readers that browse their site have deep sympathy for Meredith (as any decent human being would have for anyone who had been so brutally murdered), but the core members of the group are far more interested in spewing hatred than doing anything in support of a murder victim.
Much of the hatred coming from the guilters has been spewed online. You will see this in comment sections of articles throughout the internet, in book reviews on Amazon.com, and in various blogs and commentaries. This online behavior is not unique to this case. People pop up on articles on all topics and post vile comments. That is the reality of anonymity online. Those comments are usually one and done, written simply for shock value. When you look closer at this case, you will see a far more organized effort. You will see that a group has actually come together with the sole purpose of destroying Amanda Knox.
The guilters mask their true intentions by pushing out so called experts to support their side of the argument. TJMK has run many featured articles promoting "exclusive expert analysis." It takes very little research to discover that these so called experts are complete frauds. One of these faux experts, Laura Wray, has already been discussed in the media chapter as an unreliable source used by Andrea Vogt. Wray posts on the pro-guilt sites proclaiming to be a forensic expert when in reality she works in the fashion industry. Here are a few more fraudulent characters that have been placed on pedestals by the guilters.
A guy named Peter Hyatt created a blog under the name Seamus O'Riley, in which he claims to be able to determine guilt or deception by reading the statements of others. He states on his blog that he determined that Amanda was guilty, just by reading her written statements. He also claims that he can determine that FBI Agent Steve Moore is deceptive in his support for Amanda's innocence. He is described in various places on the internet as an investigator for the State of Maine who works along with police departments in criminal investigations.
Of course Peter Quennell loves Hyatt and is more than happy to provide a platform for him on his website TJMK. The truth has never been important to Quennell and his followers. All you have to do to be accepted into Quennell‘s cult is to actively smear Amanda Knox, so it is no surprise that Hyatt is viewed as a hero on TJMK.
The truth is Hyatt is a complete fraud. He does not have a degree in statement analysis. Actually, his degree is in Bible Studies. He teaches guitar to children ages 5-12 and has a very respectable job of investigating complaints regarding the mistreatment of disabled people. He does not work at the "Laboratory for Statement Analysis for Scientific Interrogations" in Maine as he claimed. In fact, there is no such laboratory in the state of Maine.
Hyatt is not an expert and is not involved with any law enforcement agency. Hyatt is a guitar teacher. Do not get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against guitar teachers; but I do have a problem with a guitar teacher that pretends to be an expert all while trying to smear innocent people. Why a person like Hyatt would behave as he has is anyone‘s guess but I think if he spent a little more time with his bible studies he may begin to feel overwhelming guilt for what he has done.
Statement analysis is a questionable technique even when done by the experts; the technique has absolutely no credibility when performed by guitar teachers. The truth has been available about Hyatt for some time now, yet Quennell‘s group continues to view Hyatt as an expert, completely ignoring reality.
Besides statement analysis, the guilters also thought they had a psychologist on board but it turns out they were duped once again. A woman named Ellie Ewing created a blog titled "Lies My Mother Told Me" in which she discussed the Amanda Knox case while representing herself as a psychologist with "many years of experience." She ironically referred to herself as "Miss Represented" on her blog while using her false credentials to provide analysis of Amanda‘s behavior in court.
The truth is Ewing had no clinical psychology experience and no credentials as a psychologist, which requires an advanced degree at the time of her writing.
When Ewing‘s lies were exposed she quickly took her blog offline saying that she was no longer involved with the case. Unfortunately she was not outed until the appeal was coming to a close. Her fraudulent analysis was read by many over the past few years and was heavily promoted on TJMK. He proudly stated that his site provided the expert opinion of Ellie Ewing. To this day Quennell has never acknowledged that Ewing was a fraud even though the proof is now very clear.
I should not have been shocked by anything coming from Quennell's group but I must say that I was surprised to see Quennell embrace the views of an astrologer calling himself "Ergon."
Here are a couple of excerpts from Ergon‘s analysis featured on TJMK:
"The day of the murder saw widespread stressors on all their horoscopes which would lead to murder, detection, conviction and imprisonment. The Astrology even shows Raffaele‘s drug dependency and mental confusion on the night of the murder, the conflict between Amanda and Meredith, and the violence and rage that simmered just below the surface of Amanda Knox‘s psyche."
"And the night of the murder, November 1, 2007, saw Saturn and Venus in the house of emotional excess, Uranus in the house of sudden death, and Jupiter/Pluto, in the sexual house, in an almost exact T-Square to each other. The close conjunction of Pluto to the Milky Way‘s Galactic Center shows the potency of this murder in attracting the public imagination, and also, the trigger for the murder. "
Why wasn‘t this brought up at trial? It all makes sense when you listen to Quennell‘s experts. Everyone knows that murders are more likely to occur when there is a close conjunction of Pluto to the Milky Way‘s Galactic Center! Of course we know this is all nonsense. Ergon‘s arrival to the guilter camp showed definitive proof that their group was completely void of any real expert opinion. Any experts that may have contributed early on are long gone, leaving Quennell and his followers with nothing more than delusional visions born from the stars.
The sad reality is that Quennell and Ganong have never relied on expert analysis or facts of any kind to keep their followers in line because their group is not fueled by truth, but rather by hate. The anger can be seen on their discussion board as many within the group often fight with each other causing an environment always on the verge of imploding, and eventually that is exactly what happened. Perugia Murder File had a civil war. Amazingly, it resulted in not one, but two PMFs. The original PMF was run by Peggy Ganong and a guy named Michael. When the website blew up, Ganong hijacked it throwing Michael to the curb. This led Michael to put a copy of the website on .net, leaving Ganong to run .org, all while refusing to discuss the details of their split. This of course often happens to hate groups over time. There is simply too much rage and they inevitably self destruct.
When witnessing how poorly the guilters treat each other it is really no surprise to see the group lashing out at others outside of their cult, focusing much of their rage on those who support Amanda and Raffaele. Unfortunately the attacks are not limited to anger filled rants on their forum. The group actively attempts to adversely affect the lives of those who disagree with their views.
Michael Krom is a professor at Leeds University. Meredith had attended Leeds University before going to Perugia to further her studies. Michael has been an active supporter of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. His voice was heard in Italy when he was quoted by Oggi magazine.
A PMF poster named Zorba wrote a long letter to the Vice Chancellor and several other higher ups in Leeds University calling for disciplinary proceedings against Michael. Zorba‘s letter prompted the university secretary to write a short note to Michael stating that he was not speaking on behalf of the university but rather as a private individual. The secretary included the fact that professors at the university are free to express their views.
Michael Krom was not deterred by the failed attempt to adversely affect his employment and has never toned down his support. He has been in close contact with Raffaele Sollecito and has been active in helping Raffaele get a fresh start.
Michael Wiesner is a grade school teacher in Hawaii that found himself on the guilter radar when I posted a video online that he and his class created about the Amanda Knox case. Michael used the case as a case study in his classroom allowing his students to debate the issues and to design presentations detailing their views.
Shortly after I posted the video from Michael‘s class, The Anti-Knox group launched an all out attack on Michael and his school. Attempts were made to contact students in his class, the address of the school was posted online, and a photo of the school‘s principal was posted on TJMK.
Michael Wiesner has the full support of his employer but I made the decision to remove the video from the Injustice in Perugia blog because I felt it was wrong to ask the school to deal with the unnecessary distraction presented by the guilters.
Retired FBI Agent Steve Moore has been heavily targeted by the guilters for speaking on behalf of Amanda and Raffaele. Even worse, his family has come under attack. Steve's daughter had her Facebook account cloned in an attempt to impersonate her online. Letters were also sent to Steve‘s former employer in an attempt to interfere with his employment (more to come). One conversation on PMF regarding Steve Moore‘s past in infiltrating a white supremacist group highlighted just how ridiculous Peggy Ganong and her group can be. During that conversation, Ganong actually insinuated that Steve might be a white supremacist himself. When later questioned about her comment, she stood by her statement.
Journalist Candace Dempsey has to be one of the longest standing targets for the pro-guilt crowd. There is no doubt that she is disliked by the hate filled group because she was the first journalist to suggest that Amanda and Raffaele may be innocent. Anyone that has followed my involvement in this case over the past two years knows that I have great respect for Candace. My respect has nothing to do with the fact that Candace and I are on the same side of the debate; it comes from witnessing Candace's journalistic talent as well as her ability to remain professional no matter what her detractors throw her way.
Many guilters have attacked Candace but none more than the group‘s leader Peggy Ganong. Ganong has led a campaign of misinformation about Candace for nearly four years. Ganong often questions whether or not Candace is a journalist, insisting on calling her a blogger instead of a journalist and author, and often repeats lies about her career.
Ganong claims that Candace lied about her age on her Linked In account when in fact it was a typo. Candace's age was listed as 20 years younger than it actually was. Who would attempt to shave 20 years off their age? Ganong knows it was a typo but the truth is of little importance. Ganong‘s friend Andrea Vogt asked Candace about the Linked In error while they were both covering the case in Italy. There is no doubt that Vogt relayed the information about the typo back to Ganong.
Ganong often repeats her claim that Candace lied about working at the Spokesman-Review early in her career; when in fact Candace was a summer intern, working all the beats, including courts and police. The lie claim began when Monica Guzman of the Seattle PI interviewed Candace about her book deal in 2008. Guzman asked Candace where she got her training and she said, "At the Spokesman-Review." End of story. Peggy has been calling her a liar ever since. This despite the fact that the Spokesman-Review itself interviewed Candace for her book a year later and said she was a summer intern there.
Ganong made the erroneous claim that Candace was unemployed leading her to start a food and travel blog. This led many of Ganong‘s followers to begin calling Candace a "cook" instead of a journalist. The truth is that Candace was writing stories for Puget Sound Business Journal and other magazines at the time and was teaching an online class. The blog that Ganong refers to was something that Candace was doing just for fun. Even though Ganong claimed that no one read the blog, it was actually so popular that Candace was interviewed for Martha Stewart radio and was planning to write a book on the topic before securing the book deal with Penguin Books for Murder in Italy.
Ganong‘s verbal attacks on Candace have been relentless but the most egregious conduct against Candace came from Ganong‘s good friend Peter Quennell. Quennell made the ridiculous claim on his website that Candace was stalking the Kercher family. He made the claim based on a photograph of Candace taken in Italy while she was there reporting on the case. In the photo Candace can be seen walking behind Stephanie Kercher while she appears to be checking calls or texts on her cell phone.
Quennell posted large photos of Candace on TJMK and posted information about where she was staying in Italy. Candace was traveling alone leaving her vulnerable to hostility. Quennell made it very clear that his objective was to cause trouble for Candace while she was in Italy. Thankfully Candace was not harassed while in Italy but that does not diminish the disturbing nature of Quennell's attempts.
I did not become involved with the case until after the first trial had ended so I was not a target of the guilters when I first became vocal but I would not remain off of their radar for long. I have the philosophy that everything should be out in the open when it comes to information pertaining to the case. The truth has always been on our side so there is no reason to hide anything. I have taken the same approach when dealing with the guilter websites. I have made a conscience effort to make all information available to the public leaving them to decide who is credible.
In March 2011, I decided to write an article discussing the hate campaign raging on against Amanda Knox in the media that fueled the online hate campaign led by Peggy Ganong and Peter Quennell. This article would create an obsession with Bruce Fisher (me) on the guilter websites that continues to this day.
The original article was posted on Technorati.com. I chose this web site because they seemed to garner good Google rankings. For a small time writer like me, nothing was more important than getting Google‘s attention in their search results. The article infuriated Peggy Ganong causing her to go on a manic campaign to have the article removed. She posted upwards of 100 comments on the article in a very short time frame. Every word in the article was truthful and backed by documentation but that was not enough to keep it online. Technorati removed the article because they host a "soapbox" environment and it is easier for them to avoid controversy. Keep in mind that the article was approved by Technorati's staff. They took the easy road on this one. If the article remained online, they would have had to deal with Ganong's relentless email and phone campaign. Ganong is known to flood email accounts with messages until she is heard. Technorati did not have a horse in the race so they simply removed themselves completely. It was unfortunate that Technorati was so easily influenced by a hate group but I understood their position.
Bruce Fisher became Peggy Ganong‘s obsession. Her avatar read "Bruce Fisher when will I see you" and it was obvious that I was on Ganong‘s mind day and night. Ganong and her friends also went to great lengths to find out who I was.
The attacks on me were nothing new as the guilters had shown similar obsessions with many others who supported Amanda Knox. I was just the latest one to have the honor. Ganong led an all out search for Bruce Fisher. After posting up several possibilities that all proved false, they were finally able to announce that they found me and that I had been exposed. In reality PMF‘s investigation of me consisted of nothing more than someone trolling my Facebook account and obtaining information from a dishonest teen blogger who had attempted to use software to pull my IP address out of an email. Someone should have informed PMF that I was never in hiding, as it would have saved them a lot of time and effort.
I have always been available for anyone who wishes to speak with me; just send an email to injusticeinperugia@yahoo.com. The people searching for me have made no effort whatsoever to contact me. If I wanted information about someone who was readily available online, I would just ask that person.
PMF does not seem to realize that their obsession for Bruce Fisher proved what I knew all along. I have never worked for the PR firm Gogerty Marriott, I am not part of a super human public relations force, I am not a cameraman from Seattle, I am not a group of people using one name online, I am not Amanda‘s stepfather Chris Mellas, I am not any of the things they had claimed for over a year.
I will always be the person I said I was all along. I am just a guy that did what he could to help two innocent people who had been wronged by many. Injustice in Perugia is a grassroots organization that worked to correct an injustice. I am one person in an amazing group of selfless people that gathered to speak the truth. Injustice in Perugia brought actual experts together that analyzed the Amanda Knox case; working with real evidence. The truth was always clear for anyone willing to see it. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were wrongfully convicted. Ganong and her friends refused to accept the truth, so as usual they decided to attack the messenger.
Ganong has repeatedly tried to smear me by making the baseless claim that articles written by me caused an anonymous Internet troll to post a threat against her on the website Perugia Shock. The senseless comment was removed by the website‘s owner Frank Sfarzo as are all comments of that nature. Injustice in Perugia has the same policy on its discussion board. I will not allow any hate speech or threats of violence of any kind to be posted on any website that I am associated with. Ganong and her friends have a different philosophy. Ganong claims that hateful comments on her website are protected by free speech. Ganong had no problem when her co-moderator Randy Jackson insinuated that he was stalking me by repeatedly detailing the location of my work, suggesting which restaurants that I may frequent nearby, and even stating the make and model of my car. Once again Ganong had no problem when a poster on her website named TomM repeatedly claimed to drive by my house in order to take pictures. Ganong was silent once again when I was threatened by her good friend Peter Quennell when he said this about me:
"I will bury him (I know where he is)"
Ganong has the philosophy that I needed to be "outed" so that I could "man up" for my accusations against her and her friends. She made these statements about me ignoring the fact that she is surrounded by anonymous posters spewing false information and hatred against Amanda Knox and anyone that supports her. Ganong‘s group has worked tirelessly to harm those that disagree with their views, all while hiding behind screen names. I wrote articles discussing Ganong and her followers because they attacked innocent people for years and the truth about their behavior needed to be told. Now that this case has come to a close I can only hope that the hatred will stop and reality will set in.
Ganong‘s creepy obsession with me was not the first sign that she had stalking tendencies. Ganong bragged about scoping out the Knox's home on PMF. When questioned about driving by the Knox home, Ganong claimed that she just happened to pass by the house on the way to another destination. Never mind the fact that she counted their shrubs to see just how much the Knox family may or may not spend on landscaping. I guess Ganong views that as normal behavior from someone that just happens to be passing by. Ganong likes to look at herself as a victim. In fact, she has accused me of libel for bringing her actions to light. Truth is an absolute defense against charges of libel. Everything I write is backed up by documentation. Ganong is trapped in her own words. It takes very little research to see that she is the aggressor, not the victim.
Besides being the aggressor Ganong appears to be a compulsive liar. She defends her lies by saying that she often posts non factual information simply to see what the reaction will be. Ganong‘s most disturbing lie may very well have been a story she fabricated saying that a supporter of Amanda Knox harassed her and her family at a memorial service for one of her relatives. Here is an excerpt from PMF:
"I wasn't going to mention this, but a few weeks ago I attended a memorial service for someone to whom I am related by marriage (common-law marriage but it is a union that has lasted for 25 years and I consider my common law sister-in-law as family) and was surprised to see an FOA activist in attendance. This person did not know the deceased, though he knows and works for some people she knew, and was not invited. This person sat down two tables from me and seemed to be filming the whole time with a digital camera. I did not speak to this person. I got a call from my family members later in the evening, telling me that after I left, the FOA [Friends of Amanda] enthusiast actually approached someone in my family, asked him if he knew about his relationship with me, and proceeded to ramble on about PMF, TJMK, Amanda Knox, etc. until my family member stopped him and said "this is neither the time nor the place for this conversation."
"I felt bad for my brother and his wife: he had just lost a wonderful mother-in-law and she had just lost a wonderful mum. How anyone could approach them under the circumstances to spout incomprehensible acronyms and refer to a "relationship" with me is beyond my comprehension. And I still don't understand the presence of a camera. This event was not held in a church, but it was a memorial for someone who had died. When was the last time you or anyone saw someone snapping pictures or filming in such a context?"
Ganong was completely dishonest when she claimed that a FOA member harassed her and her family with a video camera at a memorial. The person she is referring to was hired by the family to photograph and take video. He is also not a member of FOA. He asked Ganong's brother one question about the case because he knew Ganong ran a website about the topic. I agree completely that this photographer (who wishes to not be named) should not have asked any questions at all because he was there to do a job but Ganong took one question from a photographer that is not FOA and spun an egregious lie. I did not mention the photographer by name because he does not want to get in trouble with his work. I have no interest in causing him problems with his job because he made the mistake of asking one question.
In another act of dishonesty, Ganong goes to great lengths to attempt to discredit the support that Amanda receives and she encourages her followers to do the same. One of her group‘s favorite tactics has been to exaggerate the scope of the PR firm hired by Amanda's parents. The truth is that Amanda‘s parents hired David Marriott to organize interviews with the press. They had every right to publicly defend their daughter. They did absolutely nothing wrong by hiring a firm to help them with a situation that was very new to them.
Ganong did not create the PR myth but she has campaigned heavily to keep it alive, often repeating the guilter catch phrase: "The PR Supertanker" when referring to any positive coverage for Amanda. The later chapters of this book detail the truth about the support that Amanda and Raffaele received.
Despite all the lies, Ganong‘s most despicable act has been to openly encourage her followers to attack Amanda Knox‘s family. Photos of the family are often posted on PMF with disparaging captions. One comment fuels the next with each poster trying to outdo the other. Amanda's parents are a constant focus of their attacks. Shortly before the end of the appeal, a poster named Emerald made this comment about Amanda‘s step father, Chris Mellas:
"It's past the point of utterly loathsome that Chris has moved away from his wife to be close to her grown daughter. Creepy. Makes me want to puke thinking about it."
I was deeply offended by this comment but was not surprised to see that Emerald‘s statement was well received by her friends. Peggy Ganong is the chief moderator of PMF and she saw nothing wrong with the statement. In fact she posted shortly after Emerald‘s comment appeared and said nothing about it.
A PMF member named Macport made a photo collage of Amanda‘s sister Deanna crying at different stages of the trial simply to mock her. Other posters are critical of her outfits and cannot resist mocking her when she gives interviews. No matter what your opinion is of Amanda Knox, why attack her sister?
It is bad enough that the adults in Amanda‘s family are targeted but it is beyond repulsive to see both of Amanda‘s youngest sisters also being harassed. Photos of the two are posted on Ganong‘s website and members of the group, such as Julia Perez (Jools), a cyberstalking PMF member from Spain, have even made efforts to view their Facebook accounts. When questioned about this behavior the group claimed to be looking out for the children's safety. Two PMF members, Windfall and Earthling, suggested that the girls were "acting" when they showed emotion for their older sister. How does Peggy Ganong feel about innocent children being targeted on PMF? Of course Peggy Ganong continues to defend her website by claiming the posters have the right to express free speech.
I continue to be intrigued as to why PMF has continuously showed a disturbing obsession with sex in their daily conversation, attempting to paint Amanda's supporters as middle-aged men that only support Amanda because they are sexually attracted to her. Here are a few quotes from PMF:
"All are middle-aged men driven by fantasies of recapturing lost youth, being a hero and carrying the damsel in distress off into the sunset."
"those middle aged one hand typists who spend their sleepless nights imagining romantic interludes with Amanda."
"seriously sick, pitifully perverted, lust aided attraction that some bored middle aged males with keyboards, have for a unanimously convicted, justly incarcerated young female"
Recently, this group suggested that Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales became interested in the Amanda Knox case because he was looking to have sex with Amanda.
"I don't see the pay-off in the end. Right now, Jimbo is on the verge of losing any sense of respect as a new media entrepreneur (lying about his checkuser results, for example) just for a chance to catch a peek of some tender young sex killer flesh."
"Jimbo is precisely the profile of the aging Lothario looking for access to tail through his powerful media connections. He isn't thinking with his correct head and everything he's proposed is straight out of the FOA manual."
"Somebody should give Jimbo a cold shower. He's really lathered up and ready for brunette sex killer action"
Ganong should have been ashamed to be part of that conversation, but as moderator of PMF she not only endorsed the dialogue but joined in with a zinger of her own:
"In all seriousness, what is it with these wiki guys and their wicks?"
Ganong‘s joke was pretty harmless compared to many of the comments that can be read on PMF, but her support helps to fuel the members in her group that had more serious obsessions. Ganong‘s good friend Peter Quennell appears to be the worst of the sexually obsessed in the Anti-Knox group. Many were shocked to hear what I discovered about the face of the Anti-Knox hate campaign in early 2011.
Anyone that has followed Injustice in Perugia knows that we have never shied away from criticizing those responsible for the wrongful convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. We have also been quick to call out people who provide misinformation and outright lies about the case, and also those who have gone out of their way to attack the families of Amanda Knox and her supporters. We have worked tirelessly to make sure that the truth about this case has been heard and we have done so without maliciously prying into the private lives of those who disagree with our position. No matter how vile our detractor's actions have been, we have never resorted to their reprehensible tactics in response.
IIP was faced with a tough decision when we uncovered information about Anti-Knox blogger Peter Quennell, owner and operator of TJMK. After a long discussion with the victim in this particular case, we decided together that Quennell‘s behavior could potentially harm others if it remained private. For this reason we made an exception to the rule when it came to releasing personal information because we felt Quennell‘s loyal following had the right to know about his conduct so they could take the proper precautions to protect themselves.
Peter Quennell‘s disturbing obsession with Meredith Kercher has long been a red flag suggesting that he most likely had deeper obsessions. Not only does Quennell post many photos of Meredith on TJMK, he also writes creepy articles about Meredith, a complete stranger, imagining what she would be doing if she was still alive. Quennell also takes interest in several other young murdered women. Photos of Natalie Holloway, Elizabeth Mandala, Laci Peterson, and Sonia Marra are posted. Quennell limits his coverage to young women. No male victims are discussed.
Quennell‘s infatuation with young women may seem harmless to the casual reader on TJMK, but unfortunately he crossed the line of human decency when his obsession led him to stalk a young woman in order to feed his desires. When the young woman refused his advances, Quennell tormented her, eventually demanding that she pay him money to end the ordeal.
The young woman‘s personal information will not be revealed, as these details are not necessary to detail the reprehensible behavior exhibited by Quennell. For the sake of her privacy, I refer to the young woman as Jane and I describe her career as that of a dancer.
Jane‘s nightmare began when Quennell attempted to work his way into her life by luring her into a business deal in which he would create a promotional website to help build her career. She was new to the United States and Quennell's offer sounded pretty good in the beginning. Quennell proceeded to create a website telling Jane that he was creating the website free of charge to show her the benefits of his promotional expertise.
Quennell was dishonest with Jane from the start when he led her to believe that he was an expert in website design. Up to that point Quennell had only presented a few websites online and they all used the same generic template. Besides TJMK, Quennell had designed a website for his condominium complex and another that highlighting dancers. All three websites have the exact same layout and could be created by anyone with minimal computer skills.
During the time that Quennell was creating the website, he offered Jane money on several occasions to help her through the tough times as she built her career. Jane told him repeatedly that her parents would help her financially. After uncomfortable pressure from Quennell, Jane accepted a cash gift from him to pay her rent. Quennell told her it was a gift that she did not have to pay back. From the tone of Quennell‘s future emails it was clear that he felt that the cash gift gave him a certain power over Jane. Quennell convinced Jane and her friend to meet him in San Francisco to take photographs and video to enhance the website. This trip seemed to give Quennell a false sense that he was making progress with his quest to become closer to Jane.
Jane became increasingly alarmed when Quennell began suggesting that their business relationship should be a secret. She had no idea why anything should be a secret. She was also very uncomfortable with topics of a sexual nature that Quennell was sending in his emails. When reading the emails it is very clear that Quennell was looking for more than a business relationship. Quennell repeatedly mentions his own looks, suggests to Jane that it is perfectly normal if she wants to ask him questions about his sex life, and even goes as far as to let Jane know that he and his wife sleep in different beds.
When Quennell unveiled the new website, it included many personal details of Jane's life and she did not approve. Jane was shocked at the website Quennell had created and was also becoming further concerned (and was warned by at least one friend) that his interest in her was not solely business-related. He refused to cease communications with her when Jane suggested that they end their business relationship, and he appeared to her to be obsessed.
Quennell sent hundreds of emails to Jane, sometimes fifteen or more in a single day. The young woman that Quennell stalked and tried to extort money from is in her early 20‘s (Quennell is approximately three times her age). She had only been in the United States for a short period of time when Quennell invaded her life and was still in the process of learning the English language. She came to the United States pursuing career opportunities making her even more vulnerable to Quennell‘s claims that he could make her famous.
Here is a small sample of disturbing excerpts from Quennell‘s emails that caused Jane to quickly become uncomfortable with the ―business relationship between the two:
"But if I never meet your family and friends that is also just fine with me. If you think it best it remains a big secret, that could be a very good idea!"
"I should be back soon to looking way better than you have been seeing me! Your looking after yourself puts me to shame."
"I should tell you much more about myself. Women have always flocked to me for comfort and protection. Hope thought you should be eager by now to show that you trust me, not give me a hard time over small matters. She does kinda have a point. Please email me the address? I wont ever use it, never fear. She doesnt know about the phone number. Better we keep it that way."
"I dont much like hugging, but kissing on the cheek is something everybody does and all my women friends more or less insist on it. Hope gets a kiss on the cheek 10-20 times daily. You are the first woman ever to refuse and to even seem a bit horrified. And yet at the same time you shared a bed with Joan when you did not have to. If you are lesbian, I have no problem with lesbians - my best woman friend in UN is a lesbian and I know many - and I will keep it a secret forever if you want.
"You are a good chick. A very good chick. Tigress, you could go a long way. Just love you in those boots by the way."
"Also please ask me anything you like about my sex life and my relations with women, that is only fair and you too should be able to expect no surprises."
"For most of my life I was really very good looking (like you)(and Hope) or so I was told like 5000 times! So I was always being grabbed, and I hardly ever really appreciated it."
"I should not have told you we have separate bedrooms at home! At least without going on a while longer. You'd be surprised how many men and women especially if they are rich and have large homes prefer to have their own space. It is not necessarily a sign that they are short of sex or never spend the night in one another's arms."
"By the way, you and I were alone together in a room, and I was amused
that you didnt even seem to notice. You were very relaxed, in fact, and
I really liked and appreciated that. Remember where?"
"PS I'm looking way better too. Brown and really quite fit. More of that to come."
The emails from Quennell were disturbing to read and will not be released in their entirety out of respect for Jane. The excerpts I have shown were approved by Jane and are more than enough to show how inappropriate Quennell‘s behavior was.
Jane wanted to end her business relationship with Quennell. She wanted the website taken offline and wanted the relentless emails to end. Quennell refused to comply and demanded money to remove the website. Quennell continued to send Jane hundreds of emails encouraging (pressuring) her to work with him. Quennell frequently attended events where Jane was performing, causing Jane to have an even greater fear for her safety. Jane built up the courage to respond to Quennell once again, asking him to take the website offline and suggested that they go their separate ways.
Jane‘s request caused Quennell to become even angrier. Quennell lashed out at Jane, threatening her career, her citizenship, and her future; looking for anything that would help him gain control. He refused to take the website offline and even demanded the money back that he gave her as a gift. The stress was too much for Jane and she decided to try and ignore his emails and accept the fact that the website that she did not approve of would remain online.
I first came in contact with Jane after I saw the website in question while browsing through the websites that Quennell had designed. I became suspicious about the website designed for Jane because I could not imagine that anyone would have approved of the unprofessional website that Quennell had created. After seeing Quennell‘s odd behavior on TJMK, I decided to contact Jane to see if she approved of the website. After Jane's initial shock that someone was contacting her to help her escape from her ongoing nightmare, she agreed to accept help to have the website created by Quennell taken offline. I put her in contact with a private investigator that helped her file a report with the authorities in her State. The detectives assigned to Jane‘s case immediately saw that Quennell was attempting to extort money from her by threatening to keep the website online indefinitely. Quennell was contacted by the authorities to take the website offline immediately and was told to have no contact with Jane or he would face arrest.
My involvement with this case has led me to come in contact with other women that have told me that they were also mistreated by Quennell. These contacts have chosen to stay silent for personal reasons. I encourage anyone that has been wronged by Quennell to come forward. Exposing the truth will help to prevent Quennell from mistreating others in the future. Quennell is the face of the hate campaign against Amanda Knox that continues to this day. If this information does not cause readers to pause and reevaluate what kind of person Quennell is and how credible his website is, nothing will.
Quennell’s predictable reaction
The details of Quennell‘s behavior were first posted on the Injustice in Perugia blog. I also posted an article on Ground Report and All Voices, which are both citizen journalist websites. Needless to say, Quennell was not happy about the situation and scrambled to respond.
Unfortunately for him, his response posted on PMF was an outright lie:
"There is much missing from those emails on her side and nothing from what continued on Facebook. Several are fabricated and not written by me."
It is laughable to think that any of the emails I presented were ever fabricated. Every email excerpt that I attributed to Peter Quennell was written by him and he very well knows this. He knows what he did was wrong. He complied with detectives when they told him to take the unauthorized website offline for that very reason. As far as the rest of Quennell‘s statement goes, I clearly stated that Quennell sent hundreds of emails to Jane. Jane‘s privacy is of great concern and the entire conversation was not necessary to show Quennell‘s reprehensible behavior. Nothing Jane said to Quennell warranted the emails she received in return.
As expected, a few of Quennell‘s loyal followers rushed to voice support. Most comments were nothing more than baseless attacks on me and completely ignored Quennell's behavior. Quennell‘s behavior was embarrassing and unacceptable, so I understood the need for his supporters to be in denial. However, to any reasonable person, Quennell‘s emails exposed him for what he really is. In the months that followed, Quennell‘s support base dwindled drastically.
I am rarely shocked by anything I read from Peggy Ganong, but I was actually a little surprised to see her response to the news about Quennell. Instead of distancing herself from Quennell‘s harassment of an innocent young woman, Ganong instead chose to blame and attack Quennell‘s victim, insinuating that she is hiding behind a pseudonym and acting immorally in order to run an online smear campaign against Quennell. (As an aside, Ganong should understand that it is in fact people like her who prevent people who have been victimized from speaking out in the first place. How can she then complain about anonymity?) Here is the exact quote Ganong used:
"Jane and Bruce have violated one of the basic underlying rules of netiquette. Having done so, one apparently now wants to hide behind a Jane Doe moniker, while the other has always hidden, maintaining his status as a virtual non-entity who has been hired to run an online smear campaign as part of his job description. Whatever else happens, Jane has shown herself to be someone who has no qualms about taking someone‘s money and then not living up to her end of the moral agreement."
The fact that this young woman wanted to protect her privacy needs no explanation. Ganong‘s comments regarding this young woman were shameful, but not surprising coming from her.
Caught in his own web of lies
Peter Quennell was once again shown to be a liar when he attempted to strong arm the Ground Report website into taking the article detailing his behavior offline. Quennell contacted Ground Report to inform them that he was represented by a high-powered New York attorney. He has used this made up fact several times in the past in order to try to deter anyone from writing criticism about him. Quennell‘s lie was exposed when he attempted to namedrop this attorney in one of his many threatening email campaigns. Unfortunately for Quennell, this time the website he threatened legal action against actually took him seriously and had an attorney of their own. When Ground Report‘s attorney attempted to call the opposing counsel Quennell namedropped, lo and behold the namedropped attorney relayed that Quennell had misrepresented their relationship.
Quennell's actions make it obvious that he is a compulsive liar. In a lame attempt to explain his behavior on his website, he made the claim that he is actually the one trying to protect the young woman he has victimized. In his feeble attempt to defend his repulsive actions, he claimed that the young woman was tricked into revealing the emails between the two and she "rejects" me as much as he does. This could not be further from the truth and Quennell knows this; yet he chose to lie anyway, even when the truth was obvious. The most pathetic part of his lies is that even when trying to cover for himself, he could not help but disgustingly attack the young woman once again, even after his behavior had been exposed. His comment also suggested that he was still in contact with his victim which was untrue. Although, Quennell has emailed baseless threats that have all been ignored.
Once again, it is understandable why Quennell would lie to his ever shrinking group of followers. Everything I wrote about him is true, and thus his only option was to attempt to lie his way out of it. Quennell also suggested that he had a defamation lawsuit against me in the works. For those who do not know, Quennell has long claimed (even before the Ground Report fiasco) to have a high powered attorney that I need to fear because this attorney has taken down the mafia. I do not doubt that perhaps Peter Quennell has met a high powered attorney in his lifetime, but at the time of his threats it was glaringly obvious that he had no attorney representing him.
How do I know he had no attorney? Because if Quennell actually had an attorney who knew anything about defamation law, he would also know he had no case. Fortunately, Injustice in Perugia has several attorneys that have given me the tools to explain to him why I am not afraid of any of his baseless claims of defamation.
The truth is an absolute defense against a defamation claim. Everything I have ever written about Quennell is absolutely true, and Quennell knows this as well. Quennell also knows that were he foolish enough to file a lawsuit, he would be exposing himself to pretrial discovery, risking even further humiliation. Moreover, were Quennell to file a lawsuit, he would likely be deposed and face cross-examination by an experienced attorney. If entered into evidence, these depositions would all become part of the public record. If you have read Quennell‘s emails, it is obvious he would be his own worst witness. And, unlike his blog, where no one questions a word he says, he would be forced to answer questions under oath, something I imagine he is quite afraid of. Injustice in Perugia would be more than happy to have that opportunity.
I do know that Quennell has now hired an attorney (months after he claimed to have one), no not the high powered mafia busting guy, but an attorney none the less. IIP has been in contact with his "real" attorney and it seems that the only concern now is whether or not any lawsuits will be filed against Quennell for his reprehensible behavior.
I have personally been criticized a few times for how I handled the Quennell situation as some thought that Quennell‘s behavior should have remained private. Others claimed that the actions of our group made it look as if we were obsessed with Quennell. The truth is that Quennell was viciously attacking Amanda Knox and her followers with very little resistance before IIP took action. I believe it would have been foolish not to shine a light on his behavior. I included the information in this book because I believe IIP furthered its cause by exposing the Anti-Knox hate groups and highlighting Quennell‘s behavior was a significant part of that. By Investigating Quennell, IIP was not only able to help a young woman who was being harassed; we also silenced the loudest voice in the Anti-Knox hate campaign.
Unfortunately, there was a time when PMF/TJMK was respected by many casual readers as a source for information pertaining to the Amanda Knox case. After the first trial ended both Quennell and Ganong were interviewed by the media as if they were experts. This was before IIP exposed the truth about their reprehensible behavior. After the verdict came in on appeal declaring Amanda and Raffaele innocent, Quennell and Ganong were interviewed by no one. Once the truth was well known, the Anti-Knox groups were too toxic for even the yellow journalists to approach.
Injustice in Perugia will continue to monitor and scrutinize the actions of the Anti-Knox group leaders Quennell and Ganong along with their shrinking group of followers, whether it be connected to the Amanda Knox case or not, we refuse to simply turn the other cheek.